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Kumo
Appearance Kumo is a baby-faced shinobi with innocent blue eyes. He has somewhat unruly black hair and isn't the tallest. He wears a long ripped cloak with a hood that conceals his secret- he has eight arms, six of which are puppet arms. When he is away or travelling, he removes his Sunagakure hitai-ate and puts up his hood to obscure his identity. When fighting with all of his arms, the poncho opens up to become a cloak that hangs behind him, revealing his bare torso and his arms- he cannot wear a shirt as it interferes with the functioning of his other arms. On his back, concealed by the poncho, he has a large spider "tattoo". When he is in a desperate situation or angered, his hair will almost stand on end and a crazed expression will appear on his face, eyes glazed over. Personality Kumo is, to all intents and purposes, a pleasant and enthusiastic (if slightly bumbling) genin. He has a relaxed nature and is not easily angered. He doesn't mind volunteering for slightly unpleasant or especially boring D-Rank missions, can handle those missions alone and makes sure not to trouble anyone if he can help it. He is good-natured and seems to be content with his rank of genin, showing no particular ambition. He gets embarrassed quite easily. Despite the tragic loss of his family due to a missing-nin attack, he maintains his good humour. Behind this facade, Kumo's true personality could not be more different. He doesn't care for his village or any missions they send him on, only caring about himself and his search for power. All that matters to him is making more puppets and furthering his mastery over puppeteering. He sees himself as a spiritual successor to Sasori. He sees his village as something to be used and abused, and the only reason he has not turned rogue is because Suna can support him with supplies, money and lodging. He is cruel, slightly sadistic and only sees other humans as potential puppets. He refuses to acknowledge that they are like him- living, existing, feeling humans. The least hostile emotion he has shown towards another being is respect, which he currently only holds for Sasori. He has briefly spoken of slight respect towards humans who were difficult to kill for his puppets. He is impatient and relatively quick to anger. When he is angry, he becomes somewhat crazed, often shouting at people and threatening them. He is ruthless and will let nobody stand in his way. He gets irritated reasonably quickly. Kumo has a slight lust for power and is greedy, often complaining about how he wants more puppets and more money to buy himself sealing supplies. His greed reaches such an extent that he will refuse to waste bodies of those he has killed, even inferior ninja, and will turn them into puppets before storing them away in the Puppeteers Guild headquarters. Background Born in the arid climate of Sunagakure to a ninja father and civilian mother, Gingitsune Bakuni was a sickly child. He spent most of his early years suffering one illness after another, which was believed to have weakened his body and mind. Due to this, he was not allowed by his parents to enter the Ninja Academy. Bakuni was distraught. However, while he was laying in bed one day, recovering from another sickness, his older brother Bakufuu came to entertain him. He had that day learned about legendary Sunagakure ninja in history at the Academy, and had heard the tale of Chiyo-baasama, who was a legendary puppeteer. Bakufuu had managed to replicate feeble chakra strings, and using both hands, he managed to make a small wooden toy dance for Bakuni. Bakuni's eyes lit up and he persuaded his brother to show him how to make chakra strings. While Bakuni succeeded, due to his sickly nature his strings were no more than wisps of chakra that soon petered out. While it was an amusing diversion for Bakuni to make his brother and toys re-enact ninja fights he soon tired of it, especially as the excitement worsened his condition and Bakufuu had graduated, only having time to train for the Chuunin exams. In his teenage years, Bakuni's constitution finally improved, and at the grand old age of sixteen, he entered the Ninja Academy. He was often mocked for his late entry into education, and this along with his lack of skill at taijutsu (he was still somewhat weak) reinforced a stormy and angry attitude. When at the age of seventeen he was told that he would never graduate due to his attitude and weakness, he ran out of the Academy with anger and sadness. He would never measure up to his brother Bakufuu, he would disappoint his father and he would never make anything of himself. He ran through the streets with people shouting after him, not heading anywhere in particular. Somewhere down the street,there was a dilapidated building, and Bakuni (with a singular lack of agility) crashed through a rotten wall, skidded to a halt and fell through rotted floorboards. He crashed down into a well-concealed basement. Getting up, out of breath due to his lack of stamina, he noticed odd diagrams on the wall. He had fallen among piles of scrolls. He went to open one and it burned him. He jerked his hand back, caught it on a sharp edge of a table and pulled it back to him with a whimper. He had cut his palm. A few droplets of blood landed on the paper and suddenly the scroll unravelled, with invisible ink appearing. Reading it with wide eyes, he realised that it was on the subject of puppets, a presumed lost art in Suna. Using his now bloody palm, he read voraciously the other scrolls. By now he had absorbed some knowledge about puppets and building them. However, repeated reference to "human puppets" confused him. Did the writer mean puppets in the shape of a human? He rolled the scrolls back up and they sealed themselves. Bakuni took the scrolls with a scorpion seal on to his favourite academy teacher, explaining that he had "discovered" them. His teacher's eyes widened and he told the story of the Scorpion of the Red Sands, Sasori. Not much was known about the enigmatic figure, but he was linked to Chiyo. Bakuni went home with a renewed interest in chakra strings. Using one of the scrolls, he built a very crude marionette that was life-sized. He got it to spar against his brother, and his brother crushed the wood under bare fists. But the marionette had managed to make some lifelike movements even under the control of an amateur, and Bakuni re-read the scrolls he owned. Pleased at discovering one of Sasori's oldest hideouts before the missing-nin left the village, Bakuni returned to the academy the following day with a new attitude- pleasant, enthusiastic and keen to learn. In his studies, he learned that people acknowledged him less and as less of a threat with this attitude. Also, he experimentally began to feign incompetence and he sailed even more under the radar of everyone. While pretending to be barely competent, Bakuni began to ponder the idea of "human puppets". If chakra strings could be attached to puppets to move them, surely it could be applied to any object. While constructing his two faithful battle puppets, he began to muse on humans. They could be controlled, but if they moved independently, they could fight against or negate actions the puppeteer wished them to perform. Then an idea occurred to him and Bakuni took his first step onto the road that would lead him to what he would become. Enquiring innocently about the path of medicine, he was told that it would possibly be a good choice for a career. Bakuni's chakra capacity was not high and it would suit him better than a fighting career. Also, medic-nins were always in high demand. Sending him on a preliminary course, Bakuni began to learn about the anatomy. He combined medical training with academy lessons, trusted to handle both because he was "older, and thus more mature". In the middle of finishing his puppets, he realised that wrapping chakra strings around their limbs would not work. He went to a large jutsu library for research, pretending he was sent to read about medicine. He ended up in the fuinjutsu section and quickly found information about seals. He discovered one about chakra strings, called a "chakra string anchor" seal. Using it, he discovered that it hugely increased mobility and efficiency of puppets. He also realised that Sasori's scrolls had a type of seal on. He studied seals more and made his first storage scroll. Soon after he finished his battle puppets, he graduated from the Academy, becoming a genin. Due to his age and late graduation, he couldn't find a genin team. This did not bother him, and soon he became the eternal errand-runner. While the young genin carried out missions and trained to become chuunin, he would run the D-Rank errands that wasted so much of their time.Due to his maturity, age and medic-nin training, he was given some more unpleasant errands, such as taking dead ninja to the morgue. One day, he stole a body from the morgue and took it to the basement he had discovered so long ago, which had become his hideout. He carved chakra anchor seals in the decaying flesh, attached chakra strings and managed to make it perform a short taijutsu kata. Bakuni felt no remorse at abusing a corpse, as it was already dead, and it would help him in his pursuit of puppetry. He then decided he would become a puppeteer and surpass even the great Sasori. Through experimentation, he discovered that corpses were no good as they rotted too quickly and were feeble. Also, the morgue were noticing that bodies were vanishing. Bakuni buried them outside Sunagakure. Without inspiration or the ability to experiment more without being noticed, Bakuni's motivation waned. Then, one day as he was perusing a book on Sasori in frustration, a spider dropped down from the dusty ceiling, landing on his book. It crawled across the book and it was then everything came together. With the scorpion scroll in his peripheral vision, the latest human puppet experiment in the distance and the book in his hand, he threw away any morality he had remaining and his name. From that day, he called himself Kumo. Inspired by the spider and Sasori's example, he named himself after an insect and started working hard on puppets again. Within months he had figured out how to make human puppets that wouldn't decay. However, he wanted to be able to control more than one puppet at once. So he began his most dangerous experiment on himself. Having figured out how to put chakra pathways in them from studying anatomy in detail, he constructed artificial arms with crude chakra pathways in so that he could use them to make chakra strings. He then fused them to his own body, leaving him with four pairs of arms, like a spider. From then, he began to wear the ripped poncho-cloak to conceal them and spread his nickname among other ninja. Assuming that he was trying to assert himself in the form of a new identity and fashion, others humoured him and soon even his own brother called him Kumo, joking he was spindly as a spider. Such experiments and human puppetry had gradually desensitised him to gore, corpses and had even deadened his morality. Keeping up his pleasant and just-about-competent facade, Kumo began planning to create his final ensemble of human puppets. He would need a human in good condition who could use elements well, rather than mangled and battle-torn decaying corpses of the morgue. However, it was complicated to try and make a human puppet use more than one chakra nature, and Kumo wanted a ninja accomplished in each of their respective affinities. To test his plan out, he decided he would need to cross a boundary and test his skills. That night, he went home and killed his family. He then made them into working human puppets, unaware of the irony that Sasori had also made puppets (albeit normal ones) of his parents. They had been an inconvenience anyway, as they had pestered him about never removing his cloak and also about his long and unexplained absences (during which he had been making puppets). Storing his human puppet family in his hideout and covering the incident up, making it look like a missing-nin incident, he killed the missing-nin with his battle puppet Sandcat, turning the body in. He revealed that he was at least competent at puppetry, and as such was trusted as the pride of Suna and a new puppeteer to leave Suna on missions. As such, he left several times for weeks, claiming he needed inspiration to make new puppets, always keeping up the pretence that he could only ever wield one in battle, never showing that he knew how to make human puppets. After travelling to the Five Great Nations over a two-year period, Kumo had finally collected what he wanted- a ninja skilled at each chakra release. Storing them in storage scrolls with a colour-coded kanji for the element on, he added them to his collection. Due to the stories of a mysterious puppet-user who had killed and taken the bodies of skilled ninja, leaving only a scrap of paper with a hand-drawn picture of a spider on, he became known as "Kumo of the Bloodstained Sands" internationally. Returning to Suna, he continued to feign that he was a genin only competent at limited medical jutsu and puppet-using, and that he was pleasant and normal. In truth, he was unbalanced, with a mad lust for power and obtaining puppets, and he would let nobody get in his way when it came to those two aspects. He continues to seek out possible human puppets, interest piqued by advanced kekkei genkai natures, and would like to make a human puppet with Storm Release, all the while staying in Suna and keeping up his charade. He founded a group to meet other puppeteers, interested in keeping up with rivals and possibly stealing their techniques, the Puppeteers' Guild. In truth, he answers to nobody but himself. Abilities Kumo is a Puppeteer, favouring battling with combat puppets constructed out of dense wood or dead humans. He has acquired some other skills as a result of mastering puppet usage, but he primarily uses puppets to fight. He keeps each puppet in a storage scroll strapped to his back under his poncho, and unseals it by channelling his chakra into it. This makes the kanji scrawled on it illuminate and unseal the puppet. To seal it, he uses a blood seal to return the puppet to its storage state by drawing blood and smearing it across the parchment. Puppetry Kumo owns seven puppets that he uses the most often in battle. Two of these are normal battle puppets and five of these are human puppets. All of his puppets have a maker's mark stamped on them in inconspicuous places- the same spider tattoo that Kumo has on his back, but without the kanji in the middle of it. However, Sandcat, one of his normal puppets, has the same tattoo on including the kanji on its right side. Fennec: Kumo's first real puppet, Fennec has been repeatedly tinkered with and modified over the years to become a useful battle puppet. Made of dense wood, it resembles a much larger version of a Fennec fox. The puppet's midsection opens up to trap enemies in and the large ears can be used to fire projectiles from. Depending on what Kumo is expecting to fight, he may supply different types of projectiles. One of the most prominent ones is thick mesh netting which is chakra-absorbent. This is used to trap enemy ninja to make into human puppets. Fennec's large frame means that it is a defensive puppet, and its ears can not just be used for offense but can be used to "catch" projectiles and some attacks. The tail can be used to trip ninja, as it is made of wooden segments and has a wire inside that can extend out. Its bulk is hefty enough to perhaps wind the opponent, should it crash into the enemy. Fennec is sealed into a storage scroll bearing the kanji 狐 written in black calligraphy. Sandcat: Kumo's next puppet, Sandcat has been honed for offense. A sand cat closer in size to a tiger, it is decorated to look like its natural counterpart with black marks around its eyes like eyeliner. On its right flank, it bears the same tattoo as the one on Kumo's back. It is not in fact a tattoo, but a Replacement Seal. When Kumo is hit, the seal on his back activates, as does the one on the puppet and it makes him and the puppet switch places, ready for a counterattack. Sandcat has blades for claws, is streamlined for speed and has fang-like protrusions for ripping the opponent apart. Its claws can extend to pierce through slots in Fennec's underbelly and impale the opponent trapped inside multiple times. Sandcat also has a ridge along where a spine would be covered in spikes to dissuade attacks from above. Its tail is used as a whip. Sandcat is sealed into a storage scroll bearing the kanji 猫 written in black calligraphy. Shoushi (Death by Fire): A Konoha ninja with an affinity for fire, this was Kumo's first human puppet. Kumo used the excuse of the cordial Suna-Konoha relationship to travel to Konoha. After a week of sightseeing and spending time searching for skilful ninja, he encountered a young woman who had shown off her Fire Release skills to a genn team. He concocted a story that a missing-nin had been seen outside the village. He lured her there and killed her with a medical jutsu, abusing it to take life instead of protect it. Sealing her corpse in a preservative storage scroll, he returned to Suna as quickly as possible. Using some medical jutsu he had learned to preserve and conserve corpses in the morgue he managed to keep the body looking relatively human, although the jutsu had the small side-effect of dulling the flesh, irises and clothing of the body. As it was made into a human puppet, it retained the ability to use chakra and its fire jutsu. Not even knowing the name of the fellow human he'd killed, he named his puppet "Shoushi", death by fire. Shoushi is sealed into a storage scroll bearing the kanji 火 written in red calligraphy. Dekishi (Death by Drowning): An Ame ninja that Kumo encountered while clearing up the remnants of a scuffle between Ame and Konoha ninja within the region just outside of Suna. He was out clearing up the dead of the Ame nin when an Ame nin appeared, coming up to him and berating and abusing him- he wanted to collect the dead and bury them honourably in Amegakure. Kumo, remembering that Ame ninja tended to use water jutsu, offered him a compromise- the bodies were rotting fast in the desert heat and the sand was lowering the quality of the corpses. He wanted to dispose of them quickly, the Ame ninja wanted to take the rotting corpses on a long journey. The Ame ninja was unmoved, and Kumo explained his compromise- winner of a duel would take the bodies. It was hot and he kindly told his companions to return to the hidden village. They did so and battle began. At first Kumo was on the defensive, dodging strikes. Then the Ame nin used a water jutsu and Kumo was convinced. Coaxing the Ame nin to boast about his skill in ninjutsu, he used Sandcat and the Puppet Replacement Jutsu to tire the Ame nin out. After the Ame nin had used up most of his chakra in a futile attempt to hit Kumo and not the puppet, Kumo killed him quickly and sealed his body in a preservative storage scroll. After disposing of the Ame bodies and telling his companions that the Ame nin had won and taken the bodies, Kumo made the body into a human puppet. It retained the ability to use chakra and its water jutsu. Not even knowing the name of the fellow human he'd killed, he named his puppet "Dekishi", death by drowning. Dekishi is sealed into a storage scroll bearing the kanji 水 written in blue calligraphy. Jishinshi (Death by Earthquake): Kumo was travelling through Kusagakure to reach Konoha for a D-Rank mission involving delivery of exports when he bumped into an Iwa shinobi. She fawned over him due to his baby-faced look and he pretended to be a young genin fresh out of the Academy, let loose to shop in Kusa's markets by his team. They spent time chatting and he discovered that the young woman had a younger brother, which is why she warmed to him, and that her chakra affinity was earth. When, at sundown, there was no re-appearance of his "team", he acted concerned and mentioned that he'd run into bandits on the way and they might have followed him. She would not let him leave and made sure that he was safe. However, as she waited with him throughout the night in a field in Kusa, she fell asleep. He killed her with his Chakra Scalpel jutsu and took her to Konoha. Hiding on the outskirts of the village, he made her into a human puppet, retaining her ability to use chakra and earth jutsu. Not even knowing the name of the fellow human he'd killed, he named his puppet "Jishinshi", death by earthquake. Jishinshi is sealed into a storage scroll bearing the kanji 土 written in brown calligraphy. Hayateshi (Death by Squall): Kumo was in Suna on medical duty at the hospital when an injured Jounin came in. Her unusual clothing caught his attention and he tampered with the hospital records so that he would be treating her. He knew that Jounin who were highly individualistic and had their own style were usually powerful enough to be different- they were the nail sticking out that was strong enough to avoid being hammered down by society or other shinobi. Over the course of treatment and several sessions with him, he discovered that her chakra affinity was wind. In the penultimate session, he used a medical jutsu for harm instead of healing, inflicting several internal injuries that could easily be passed off as undiscovered wounds. He secretly placed a tracking seal and vitality monitoring seal on her just before she was discharged. Two days later, she died of internal injuries. He collected the body the moment the seal alerted him to her death and made her into a human puppet, retaining her ability to use chakra and wind jutsu. Not even knowing the name of the fellow human he'd killed, he named his puppet "Hayateshi", death by squall. Hayateshi is sealed into a storage scroll bearing the kanji 風 written in green calligraphy. Shuuraishi (Death by Lightning Strike): For his final puppet, Kumo used up all of his vacation time to go to Kumogakure, ostensibly "because he shared his name with the village", even though he was named for a spider and the village was named for clouds. His superiors, agreeing that he should have some time off as he seemed like a workaholic with constant D-Rank mission and hospital duties, discharged him. He set off for Kumogakure with enough supplies to make himself a puppet while still away from his hideout. He entered the village as a holidaymaker, but was under suspicion from Kumo nin. However, when a missing-nin attacked the village, attention focused on him was diverted. He stole away and watched Kumogakure jounin fight the missing-nin, unbeknownst to the Kumogakure shinobi. One man in particular caught his attention with his skill with lightning techniques and taijutsu. After two days' preparation, he stalked the shinobi while he was on a mission and attacked. The battle was furious and Kumo even had to resort to using all eight of his arms. Even then, he gained several wounds. The Kumogakure shinobi was tough and had such a charismatic attitude that even Kumo was forced to respect him. After several hours, the shinobi kneeled at his feet, dying. Kumo asked him his name. "Shuu..." answered the Kumogakure ninja in his dying breath. He had died in a kneeling position, not sprawled over the ground in death like other shinobi. With respect for his latest human puppet, who would be able to retain its chakra and lightning jutsu, Kumo gave it a name that was a pun on its original name, "Shuuraishi", death by lightning strike. Shuuraishi is sealed into a storage scroll bearing the kanji 雷 written in yellow calligraphy. Fuinjutsu knowledge: While studying puppetry, Kumo learned about various seals and has a rudimentary knowledge of seals that are mostly for practical use. Medical jutsu knowledge: Kumo knows some basic techniques used for saving the life of comrades in the heat of battle or healing minor wounds out of battle. He supplements these with his own reverse-engineered jutsu to harm instead of heal and has studied more advanced jutsu, unbeknownst to his superiors at the hospital. Anatomy/biological knowledge: Kumo has extensively studied anatomy as a prelude to becoming an apprentice medic-nin and working with human puppets has made him a master of anatomical knowledge. Taijutsu: Kumo has below average ability at taijutsu- his body remains affected by his childhood sickliness and he has a somewhat frail constitution. Also, his stamina could use some work. However, when desperate, Kumo will use his extra arms for taijutsu, and as a very last resort he will coat all his hands with Chakra Scalpels to increase taijutsu damage. His puppet arms only have enough of a chakra capacity to perform chakra scalpels at the most and chakra strings at the least. Also, Kumo is above average at dodging because a medic-nin is not supposed to get hit. Genjutsu: Kumo thinks this is a useless skill and has not even bothered to learn how to counter it, especially because he has never faced an opponent that used it before and his Puppet Replacement Seal generally protects him from being hit in reality. Ninjutsu: Using his human puppets, Kumo is essentially accomplished in all five chakra natures, despite not necessarily being able to wield them all at once. Due to limitations and the strain chakra channelling and molding puts on the human puppet body, each human puppet can only use their primary chakra affinity. Ninjutsu: Using his human puppets, Kumo is essentially accomplished in all five chakra natures, despite not necessarily being able to wield them all at once. Due to limitations and the strain chakra channelling and molding puts on the human puppet body, each human puppet can only use their primary chakra affinity. He does not use ninjutsu much himself, and one of his favourite moves is to make a web of chakra strings to trap and tangle the opponent in and then destroy them with his puppet like shooting fish in a barrel. Puppet Skills: Kumo is at his best when wielding one puppet with his two natural hands. He can wield a puppet per natural hand, but any more and he struggles to do it. Using his artificial hands, he can wield four puppets averagely with 4 pairs of arms. If he tries to wield all seven of his puppets at once, his ability to wield them suffers markedly, and as such he only ever wields all of his puppets at once as a very last resort. Summary Kumo has a diverse range of skills that enable him to wield his puppets at maximum power, and while he does not fight himself, his puppets are more than enough to intercede for him in a battle.